Poverty Alleviation Policies and
Ethnic Minority People in Vietnam
The International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs)’
conference on
“Policy Perspectives on Growth, Economic Structures
and Poverty Reduction”
7-9th June, 2007
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Ikemoto Yukio
Institute of Oriental Culture
The University of Tokyo
1
Purpose

To discuss the “efficiency” of the capability approach of
Amartya Sen.

Efficiency is the shortest way to achieve the goal.

Capability approach is concerned with how to define
our goal; or how to define “poverty.”

To see the moon, not the finger that points to the moon.
"Life is like a finger, pointing to the Moon. If you look at the finger... you will miss all the
heavenly glory." (Bruce Lee)
Prof. Kregel mentioned “We have to know what it is before we know what causes it.
2
Human Development and Capability
Association (HDCA), 2003-
Ikemoto Yukio, “Poverty, Ethnic Minority, and
Culture: A Case in Vietnam,”
presented at the Conference on "Justice and
Poverty: examining Sen's Capability Approach"
(5-7 June 2001, Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund's
College, University of Cambridge), 2001.
http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/
vhi/sen/papers/ikemoto.pdf
3
Background






JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency)
A big project for policy reform for Vietnamese
government.
Poverty alleviation policy for ethnic minority
people in the central highland.
“Are they really poor?”
“Who makes them poor?”
“What are the real problems of low income?”
4
Fig. 1
pove
rty
incid
ence
5
Poverty incidence
Population Share
Incidence of Poverty
Distribution of the Poor
1993
1998
1993
1998
1993
1998
All
100
100
58
37
100.0
100.0
Kinh
87
86
54
31
80.8
71.7
Minority
13
14
86
75
19.2
28.3
6
Official Poverty line



Food poverty line
Overall poverty line
Poverty dramatically decreased.
7
Limits of income approach



Regional variation from the north to
the south Vietnam.
Cultural diversification
Practical problems to identify who are
poor. Income approach is impractical.
8
Commodity approach
(1)Poor households: More than 40% of households in the
commune is poor.
(2)Transportation: Poor communes locate more than 20
km away from a development center that has hospital,
school, government office and other basic
infrastructures.
(3)Key infrastructure: Poor communes lack electricity,
road, irrigation, clean water supply, school, hospital,
and so on.
(4)Social indicators: Illiteracy rate of poor communes
exceeds 60%.
9
Arbitrariness of
commodity approach




Anything that can be considered as
a criterion can be included.
Unnecessary investment
Waste of national budget
Needs may be different according
to their living condition, climate,
culture, etc.
10
The Capability Approach




Both income and goods may not be adequate to
measure human well-being.
Utility (happiness) is not appropriate because of
adaptive preference.
We should focus on what a person can do and
can be, which is called functionings.
Capability is a set of vectors of functionings.
11
List of functionings 1
(1)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Elementary functionings
Adequately nourished
Free from avoidable disease
Avoiding premature mortality
Adequately educated
Having essential non-food consumption goods
Being well-sheltered
12
List of functionings 2
(2) Complex functionings
g. Being happy
h. Taking part in the life of the community
I. Having self-respect
(3) Trivial functionings
j. Playing golf
13
Nussbaum’s list


Capability approach used for political purpose.
Sen does not agree to present a list. He
emphasized it is an approach and that it was not
originally intended to “operationalize”.
14
Informational base: Data


Sen (1985) discussed relationship between data
and approach.
Capability approach can utilize non-economic
data, which are actually more abundant than
market data.
15
So what?





The capability approach intends to expand the
informational base.
Why do economists focus on income?
Can income solve any problems?
This is assumed in economics.
Hypothesis of economics: Maximize utility which
is determined by income.
16
Table X-1. Inequality, Poverty and Malnutrition in Thailand
Year Gini
Poverty
Malnutrition
coefficient
Incidence
Total
2nd degree
1979
56.0%
13.1%
1981
0.431
17.5%
1982
58.0%
13.0%
1983
48.0%
11.8%
1984
35.2%
5.9%
1985
28.5%
3.9%
1986
0.466
22.4%
26.0%
3.2%
1987
23.5%
2.4%
1988
0.474
16.1%
22.0%
2.0%
1989
20.6%
1.3%
1990
0.488
15.0%
18.6%
0.8%
1992
0.515
10.9%
Malnutrition in Thailand
3 degree
rd
2.0%
2.1%
1.9%
0.8%
0.21%
0.13%
0.06%
0.04%
0.01%
0.004%
17
Capability and economics





Maximize capability set.
A.K. Sen, Development as Freedom, 1999.
Maximize weighted functionings ?
What are the weights?
What are the functionings to be chosen?
Little change in formulation can make
significant differences in development path.
18
Thank
you!
19